The further and continuing adventures of the girl who sat in the back of your homeroom, reading and daydreaming.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Alongside Surprise

So, I stopped in at Half Price Books on my lunch hour today and in the hardbacks, found this, priced to move at $5.00:

You know it, of course, or if you don't, you should: J. Neil Schulman's first novel, a very nice bit of anarcho-capitalist agitprop that stands well beside Atlas Shrugged, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, Kings of the High Frontier (I should read more Koman), The Probability Broach and L. Neil Smith's subsequent books. It's not always that easy to find in bookstores. I had heard of it but not read it until I met Tam; she loaned me her copy and I decided I was going to get one all my own.

Update: If you'd like to read this book, do me a favor: when you go back to View From The Porch, click on Tam's link to Amazon and buy it. You'll be glad you did!

Good intentions and all, I still had not. So for a fiver, this one was a no-brainer. I didn't even look inside.

Neither had Half Price Books. Or maybe they didn't care. Showing off my find to Tam this evening, I flipped it open. Oh, dear, previous owner has put his name in it and real big.

Hey, just a derned minnit:

His...name...? Funny, it's a bit scribbly but that looks like....It is! Yep. Signed. Numbered. First edition from that printer. One of five hundred and twenty-six. For just about pocket change. Worth what a buyer would pay for it and a seller would accept, right?

13 comments:

Now you're talking my language! I have signed first editions of Clarke, a signed copy of Dune, a bunch of signed paperbacks from a half dozen SF authors and a few mystery authors. I LOVE signed editions. SuWheeet!

Am green with envy.Agree a lottery ticket would be a good buy.Found a signed E.E. "Doc" Smith in back corner of store in Seattle. Re-bound for a library several decades earlier so had no real collectors value past the signature but I was more happy to put down my $8.00.

Are there any writers/singers/artists/photographers that you know and can encourage? I've been thrilled over the years to buy and beg as many works as possible from my friends and contacts - these have quickly taken a place of honor in my collection.

"I saw to what extent the people among whom I lived could be trusted as good neighbors and friends; that their friendship was for summer weather only; that they did not greatly propose to do right; that they were a distinct race from me by their prejudices and superstitions."